We see a whole lot of arcade games here at the iPhone App Review. This means we feel like we have a pretty solid handle on what’s happening within the genre. That being said, we’ve hardly hit a point where we cannot be impressed. Case in point is today’s review Boom Boom Hamster Golf from HammerCat Studios.

The app is delightful, hilarious, completely original, and so much fun to play that we just about forgot all of our other afternoon appointments. It’s one of the best arcade games we’ve had the joy to tap through in a long time, and if you’re anxious to see our full review, you need only to slide on down below the break! Starting with:

Concept and Gameplay

As the game itself says, right at the beginning, golf is great. However, wouldn’t it be better if—in the place of all those pesky white balls—you played with hamsters fired out of a cannon? Surely, it would!

When you start the level, that’s exactly what you’ll get: You’ll direct a hamster-filled cannon in the direction of the end zone, raising and lowering the muzzle to aim. Tap anywhere on the screen to get a bird’s eye view, and when you’re ready, just fire it off by holding down the red button!

Typical golf rules apply here, as you’ll have to contend with pars, birdies, bogies, and the like. But aside from the essential ruleset, Hamster Golf goes a bit mental from this point onward—and it’s delightful. Not only will you be firing rodents to a specified point, you’ll also need to smash enemies (or attack them with the tilt-based specials) avoid obstacles until you need them to stop, rotate your hamster to land properly, and generally speaking perform more zany acts than you ever thought a hole-in-one needed. And we simply cannot get enough of it!

Boom Boom Hamster Golf iPhone App Review

Design and Graphics

If you couldn’t tell from that description, the gameplay at the root of Hamster Golf is quite zany, and the artwork is every bit a matching piece. The colors are vibrant, the shapes gloriously crooked, and the hamsters themselves cute as a button.

It’s obvious the developers have spent a lot of time crafting their world, and it’s the small details that make the experience. For instance, pulling the hamster’s tail and releasing it like an elastic is the perfect putter replacement. It’s just phenomenal stuff, and we really can’t say it enough.

Overall Value

Even the pricing structure of Hamster Golf is awesome. The app is completely free with adverts, and if you’d like to remove those impositions, you need only to pay a single $0.99 fee. In fact, our only complaint is that, as-is, there simply aren’t that many levels here. Then again, the game is fresh out the chute, and as time rolls on, we absolutely expect more high-quality content.

Boom Boom Hamster Golf requires iOS 6.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. A small expedite fee was paid to speed up the publication of this review.